Two out of three Americans believe in the existence of Satan with 85
percent of the Evangelical Protestants taking that position, a Newsweek
magazine poll shows.

More than one out of three people polled, 37 percent, said they had
been tempted by the devil while 61 percent of the evangelical Protestants
said they had, according to the magazine, which will reach newsstands Monday.

Among the general population, 27 percent said they did not believe in
Satan, while only 13 percent of the evangelical Protestants did not.

The poll, conducted July 27-28 by Princeton Research Associates, reached
752 people including 209 evangelical Protestants. The margin of error was
four percentage points for the entire group and eight points for the evangelicals.

A new study being published this month by a leading political scientist
shows that Americans have a significantly stronger belief in the idea of
divine creation than Europeans or citizens of other advanced countries.
University of Cincinnati professor George Bishop conducted an extensive
cross-national study of attitudes, and initially presented his findings
at the May conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
His complete report will be published in the new issue of Public Perspective,
a journal of the Roper Center. He noted, "Nearly a third of college
graduates in recent Gallup polls still believe in the biblical account
of creation," and that about 45 percent believe that God created human
beings "pretty much in (their) present form at one time or another
within the last 10,000."

"That's a lot of people," Bishop told ABC News. "That's
not like it's some small minority position." Other findings are equally
provocative:

About 39 percent believe in a form of so-called "theistic evolution,"
where evolutionary processes developed over millions of years but were
"guided" by God.

Only about 10 percent subscribe to evolution without any form of divine
guidance or intervention as an explanation of how life began.

Scientists are far more likely to reject the notion that a deity was
involved in any scenario for explaining how human and life originated.
Only five percent subscribe to a literalist, biblical explanation, 40 percent
accept some kind of theistic evolution, and 55 percent hold to a strict
evolutionary explanation without any participation for a deity.

A Gallup poll last June suggested that as many as one-third of Americans
believe, "The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally,
word for word."

Bishop compared this statistical profile with attitudes in other countries
and found some interesting results. Whereas the percentage of those believing
in Biblical literalism has fluctuated between 32 percent and 40 percent
in the United States, only seven percent in Great Britain subscribe to
that view. Americans also show higher level of belief in other religious
tenets such as the existence of hell, the devil, heaven and an afterlife.

Americans also fared poorly in their knowledge about the science behind
evolutionary theory. Respondents in Norway, Russia, German and the Netherlands
all showed a significantly lower rate of literalist belief than those in
the U.S., and Americans lagged behind 21 other national groups in understanding
the concepts behind Darwinian evolutionary theory. Bishop also found that
those most likely to accept a scientific evolutionary explanation were
white Americans, male, college graduates, Jews, political liberals and
political independents, and young adults under 30. Conversely, his research
showed that those most predisposed to believing in Biblical literalist
accounts were "women, older Americans, the less well-educated Southerners,
African Americans and fundamentalist Protestants," according to the
Cincinnati Post. In addition, "A sizable negative relationship exists
between knowing the scientific 'fact' of evolution and beliefs in God."

Dr. Bishop said that he was "astounded" by the results of
his investigation. "This is a fertile soil for such controversies
to continue to thrive," he said, referring to the ongoing culture
war issue of whether or not to permit the teaching of evolution as fact
in public schools, or introduce so-called "creationist" accounts
based on the Old Testament Book of Genesis. "It just doesn't go away."

Bishop proposed a number of possible explanations for why Americans
display this marked predisposition to accept Christian religious accounts
of the origin of life over their European counterparts. One is the access
that different religions, including Protestant Fundamentalist groups, have
in the American "belief bazaar."

"Think of it as a market," Bishop to the Post. "You have
many different denominations competing for customers. Because of that competition,
there's more active recruiting, proselytizing and other forms of bringing
people into their particular fold. That's one notion why this society is
more religious than most developed nations."

He also noted that "The scientific world view has thus far failed
to complete Darwin's revolution in the land of 'One Nation Under God'...We
don't stack up well as a nation. Religious belief tends to be inversely
correlated with what most scientists would say is simple fact."

The Post also noted: "Another explanation for the majority belief
in creationism, Bishop said, may be that it creates a 'spiral of silence,'
a climate where people with agnostic or atheistic beliefs are reluctant
to state their views."

Behind the Ignorance

Why are some groups more vulnerable to believing in Biblical accounts
than accepting scientific explanations?

Critics suggest that differences in education and social expectations
may marginalize women, steering them away from careers in hard sciences,
and that ethnic minorities suffer due to lack of equal spending for schools
and other services. Regional differences may emerge due to varying public
budgets for education; poor rural areas, for instance, have less money
to spend on classrooms, science labs and good texts than their upscale,
industrial area counterparts. And certain religious groups accept Biblical
literalism as an important cornerstone of their faith. While Catholics
accept a theistic evolution at work in the universe, many Protestant fundamentalist
and evangelical sects preach a literal interpretation of the Bible.

But such explanations may mask another reason for the fact that a near-majority
of Americans rejects scientific evolution in favor a Bible fairy tale.
Organizations which promote a creationist agenda have honed their tactics
and enjoyed surprising success in promoting their view. One strategy involves
presenting evolution as "just another theory," along with the
claim that "other points of view," specifically Christian creationism,
ought to be made available to public school students. And the creationist
message is often couched in scientific terminology, and concentrates on
areas which its supporters claim expose deficiencies in Darwinian evolution.
Ken Hamm of the Answers in Genesis group told the Post, "I believe
that when people are taught science correctly, they see that evolution
is just a belief and not a scientific fact."

Creationists have also become active in electing sympathizers to local
and state educational agencies. In Kansas last week, for example, the state
Board of Education voted to permit the teaching of creationism in local
public schools.

This has prompted the American Geophysical Union to prepare a "call
to arms" to member groups, encouraging them to become more involved
in local and state education issues. Fred Spilhaus, executive director
of the AGU released a statement last week warning, "Once again, those
who value science and support the teaching of evolution but were too busy
to participate in local politics lost, and science education will suffer
as a result, as will science itself."

Spilhaus added, "Scientists would be well-advised to run for schools
boards or, at the very least, to actively support well-informed candidates.
If scientists want to see good science taught in the schools, they can't
just participate as teachers. They have to get out and get into the policy
making aspect of it."

South Glens Falls, New York (AP) -- Some New York students are refusing
to answer questions about the theory of evolution on state tests, because
of their religious beliefs.

But their protest is putting a monkey wrench in their grades.

Every year, some students at South Glens Falls High School, north of
Albany, refuse to answer questions about evolution on the state Regents
tests. They say the theory violates the beliefs of their faith.

Teachers say students are free to believe what they want, but they're
tested on the curriculum. And failing to answer hurts their grades.

One minister advises students to write the answers that are in the textbook
-- but tell the teacher they don't really believe it.

Results of a Louis Harris poll, released in January, included the finding
that about 70 percent of Americans believe their financial situation is
"at least somewhat" a reflection of "God's regard for them."